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When I arrived about 7:15pm at the Rumpus Room it was snowing lightly, by 8:15pm it was coming down fast and getting deep.
There was no one in the bar, it looked like slow night.
I thought we were going to play to four guys that had been
there since 1972!
Lucky for us blues fans have no common sense, by 9:00pm
the place was getting full.
Free hot tamales and chicken paprikash awaited those brave
enough to come out in the spring blizzard, and were also
treated to some of Toledo's best blues artists.
The Black Swamp Blues Society set up a table for new
memberships, sold t-shirts and helped promote
the open jam on the BSBS website.
First up was Andrew Ellis on guitar and local lawyer John Potts on harmonica, with my band backing them up on bass,drums,
and keyboards.
Andrew's gritty voice and hard edge guitar was a big
hit with crowd, with John was howling on the harp.
Next up was Buzz Anderson on guitar, Dale Vellequete
on vocals, Dr. Clay Scanlon on harp, Steve Eyer on keyboards, I was on drums, and birthday boy Wild Bill Cherry on bass.
Buzz's hot guitar licks mixed with Clay's boogie harp,
we were smokin' now!
Suzy Divine and her band made their first public
performance, with Wild Bill on bass, sounded tight,
look forward to seeing them at a club soon.
A big thanks to our own "Birdman" Rick Szempias and his
better half Sue, for without the hard work they did,
it would not have been such a great event without them.
Also to Greg Orbs for his help in cooking the food.
It was a very good Friday open jam on Good Friday,
and the list of the excellent blues artists goes like this:
1. Andrew Ellis-guitar/vocals
2. John Potts-harp
3. Buzz Anderson-guitar
4. Dale Vellequete-vocals
5. Wild Bill Cherry-bass
6. Tim Healy-harp/vocals
7. Blue Lou-tenor sax
8. Don Vellequete-alto sax
9. John Hernandez-guitar
10. Tony Hernandez-drums
11. Dr. Clay Scanlon-harp
12. Greg Orbs-bass
13. Rick "Birdman" Szempias-harp/soundman
14. Boi Detroit-steel guitar
15. Irena-keyboards
16. Dave Denner-bass
17. Teddy Ramirez-harp/vocals
18. Blues LaRue-harp
19. Tina Lee-vocals
20. Donnie G.-drums
21. Jim Barns-drums
22. Mike Csortos-guitar/vocals
23. Steve Eyer-keyboards/vocals
24. Fred Almaguer-drums
25. Suzy Divine and her band
I hope I didn't forget anyone, and most of all
thanks to all the blues fans who came out
to the third open jam.
Already planning the next one, with the past jams
having a theme, Mardi-Gras in Feb. , Good Friday in March,
how about the next one, maybe "Income tax blues" open jam
in April.
Tina Lee and Random Blues band is getting a reputation
as the Friday open jam band and we love it.
See you all at the next open jam, your friend in the blues.
Fred.
Rick,Tina and a blues fan.
Blue Lou and Don on sax.
Birthday boy "Wild" Bill Cherry.
Darol Murphy and his date.
Tim Healy aka "The Godfather"
Teddy Ramirez sings the blues.
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